The United States confiscated $ 5,4 million from the Russian oligarch: the money should be transferred to Ukraine

US Attorney's Office may confiscate $5,4 million that belongs to sanctioned Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeev. These funds can be used to restore war-torn Ukraine, reports Reuters.

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U.S. District Judge Paul Gardef's decision in federal court in Manhattan was the first forfeiture of a Russian oligarch's assets since the Justice Department set up a group in 2022 to seize funds from allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden signed into law in late 2022 a law allowing the Department of Justice to transfer some of the confiscated assets to the State Department to help Ukraine. US law restricts the government's use of confiscated assets.

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Malofeev, the owner of the Orthodox television channel Tsargrad TV, has been accused by US authorities of funding separatists in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Malofeev, who denies funding the separatists, was sanctioned by Washington in 2014 and charged with sanctions violations in 2022. He is believed to be at large in Russia.

Andrew Adams, head of the Justice Department's KleptoCapture task force, said last month that the first confiscated funds could be transferred to Ukraine soon.

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“These amounts are minuscule compared to the cost of the catastrophe that Russia has inflicted on the people and land of Ukraine, but the contribution is important,” Adams said in a speech at the Hudson Institute.

Prosecutors said in court documents late last year that they were entitled to money in Malofeev's Denver-based Sunflower Bank account because he tried to transfer it to a business partner in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Because Malofeev did not contest the confiscation claim, prosecutors said on February 2 that the funds should be confiscated by default.

The KleptoCapture task force has temporarily seized the assets of other oligarchs, including a $300 million yacht, but has yet to receive an order for their final confiscation.

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